ghrib غريب
Algerian Darja · adjective
“ghrib” (غريب) is an adjective in Algerian Darja meaning strange, odd.
Meanings
- strange, odd
- stranger, far from home
Usage
Ghrib has two main uses. As an adjective, it means "strange" or "odd": "hadi haja ghriba" (that's a strange thing). As a noun, it refers to a person who is not from here, a stranger or an exile far from their family. This sense is very present in the religious formula "da3wat lghrib mostajaba" (the prayer of the one who is far from home is answered). Comments often use it to ask for prayers. The word also evokes ghorba, exile and emigration, a theme charged with emotion in the diaspora. The feminine is ghriba.
Example
سمعت صوت غريب في الليل
sma3t sout ghrib f lil
“I heard a strange noise in the night.”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “ghrib” but also “gharib”, “ghrayeb”, “ghreeb” and “8rib”. No spelling is official: people write the sounds as they hear them.
Digits stand in for Arabic letters that have no Latin equivalent: 8 is light ha (ه) or ghayn (غ), depending on the writer.
Type “ghrib” on the Arabic keyboard
In Moroccan Darija
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Moroccan Darija, where it means “strange, odd”; “foreign, unfamiliar”: ghrib in Moroccan.
In Tunisian Derja
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Tunisian Derja, where it means “strange, odd”; “stranger, not from here”: ghrib in Tunisian.